Differences in the Development of Analogy Across Cultures: A Computational Account

Leonidas Doumas, University of Hawaii

Robert Morrison, Loyala University, Chicago

Lindsey Richland, UC, Irvine

Abstract

Theories of the development of analogical reasoning emphasize
either the centrality of relational knowledge accretion or changes in information
processing. Recent cross-cultural data collected from children in the United
States and China (Richland, Chan, Morrison, & Au, 2010) provides a unique way to
test these theories. Here we use simulations in LISA/DORA (Doumas, Hummel, &
Sandhofer, 2008; Hummel & Holyoak, 1997, 2003), a neurally-plausible computer
model of relational learning and analogical reasoning, to argue that the
development of analogical reasoning in children may best be conceptualized as an
equilibrium between knowledge accretion and progressive improvement in
information processing capability. Thus, improvements in inhibitory control in
working memory as children mature enable them to process more relationally
complex analogies. At the same time, however, children produce more complex and
more accurate analogies in domains in which they have learned richer and more
refined representations of relational concepts.